Cloisters ~ Little Winter

Little Winter is a tiny treasure, balanced precariously on the boundary between the old year and the new, Christmas and the white oblivion beyond.  Wind runs throughout the desolate opening track, as if scoring the forlorn journey of the traveler on the cover.  Plucked strings give way to a lonely cry ~ a ram’s horn, perhaps ~ opening the door for contemplative harmonies.  A church bell sounds, offering shelter from the storm.  The tentative notes of “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” slowly grow confident before fading into the aether; the EP’s closing chimes return us to the white.  Michael Tanner‘s latest venture as The Cloisters is a season in a serenade, a handful of melting snow, a pair of boots defrosting by the fire.  The coldest months may have just begun, but the earth is already turning closer to the sun. (Richard Allen)

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